http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk&eurl

This strike has already affected a lot of incomes. All of the overhead deals have been shuttered, putting quite a few assistants and development people out of work as of yesterday.

This is going to hurt a lot of people, and that just sucks.

I also know quite a lot of craft and union people. In my experience they are professional and do a great job. I’m not saying that’s universal. But what is wrong with workers in a wealthy industry like film/TV being well-paid for what they do? What’s wrong with middle-class wages for laborers?

My point is that the middle class and even upper middle class (which would be most of the WGA members) are under pressure and that creative people like writers deserve a share of the profit from their work. And that, yes, income disparity has reached a point where it seriously threatens democracy. Someone have the stat about how much wealth the richest 300,000 make in this country versus the lowest 150 million? It’s on my desk at work. I’ll find it on Monday.

I’ll restate it: when Hollywood pays a single individual over 28 million dollars in compensation annually, it is beyond hypocritical to plead poverty when others ask for a piece.

I quite understand that showrunners are contractually obligated to produce their shows and that most of them are also WGA members. They made a choice and went with their WGA affiliation. I wouldn’t want to be in their position.

You might want to check out http://mutantpoodle.com – this is a blog written by a friend of mine who is a former high level studio finance guy – he knows all about the numbers and has a strong opinion about the strike.

This strike is going to hurt my livelihood. Although it hasn’t happened yet, business will decline, and I will in accordance with a reduced workload start working a reduced week.

So forgive my lack of sympathy.

Other Lisa, how will this affect your job?

Me, I repair the stuff. That’s it. That’s my job. I’m non-union.

Although I don’t work for Paramount, we are housed on the lot, as an “on-lot vendor” in Paramount’s terminology, in the basement under one of Paramount’s many stages. Dr Phil shoots his shit upstairs.

So, I get to meet many people, nearly all of whom make more money than me by virtue of the fact that they belong to some union or other. Most of them, and this is opinion mind you, are not worth the money they are paid. That’s unions for ya.

That said, the sympathy, if any, for the WGA exists entirely off-lot, and in the minds of those who are distant enough from the nuts-and-bolts business of making movies as Other Lisa is.

Other Lisa, you are a good person, and your comments here are among my favorites, but characterizing writers as overworked proles under the spiked boot of capitalism is just silly– You know better than this.

The WGA is shooting itself in the foot, big time.

It’s not that I have no sympathy for them. It’s just that I know for a fact that there isn’t a way out of this for them except to shut up and negotiate the goddam contract to the best of their abilities, with people at table.

Like any other union member, Teamsters are obligated by contract to do their job. But, like any other union member, be it DGA, Teamster, WGA, or what-have-you, as individuals, they are not contractually forbidden to cease work in support of a strike by another union.

Is your head spinning yet?

Incidentally, I most emphatically do not agree with your characterization of the sympathies of Teamsters. I deal with them every day on the Paramount lot, and they want the strike over, sure, but not a single one I’ve talked to commiserates with the WGA.

Do like honking the horn, though, and perhaps you have mistaken that as assent.

No, that’s a medical insurance policy. Poor bastards.

If you want to know how know how “socialized medicine” might work in the United States, check out, oh, I dunno, a North American country which approximates the society and size of the US.

Canada. It’s that simple.

It’s kind of a tough call, you know?

The showrunners have been at the forefront in conciliation on this strike, for good reason, obviously, just as was the case in ’88 when they threatened to secede from the WGA and make up their own, uh, union.

What amount, in your opinion, would be fair?

See, that’s the hard part. That’s what they are arguing about. In fact, the WGA pulled its request for an increase in home video residuals off the table– in favor of arguing for an increase in residuals for downloaded video and streaming video on the the net.

It’s really complicated, and I encourage all inclined to comment to visit the WGA and AMPTP websitess before doing so, to get a handle on this.

OMG – can you say that again, more slowly – LEX -EE-I. That would be plural.

Man, I’m driving a 91 two door Tercel! Lexi-i! Hahahaha! You made my night!

Kudos,

Yogi

(And i could swear that almost all of the “violent” “anarchists” at the protest were plants. Since the police stood by and watched them smash windows and didn’t intervene.)